Review of COUNTERFEIT COWBOY by Robyn Anders

BooksForABuck.com, 2000 (Re-edited May 2006)

When software entrepreneur Kevin Sullivan overhears a pretty bartender dissing software nerds and talking about finding a cowboy and the simple life, he decides to teach her a lesson. Kevin is silent partner in an East Texas ranch--he'll pretend to be a cowboy and teach Mickey Murphy never to jump to a conclusion again. As with all of Kevin's plans, the execution is flawless--until his annoyance starts to transform into attraction, desire, and something deeper. And now Kevin is the one in trouble--because he doesn't know how to get out of his lie or hot to become the man he's been counterfeiting.

Mickey Murphy has a simple goal in life--to escape the big-city rat-race and discover the simpler life of the country. She doesn't require a big spread--enough land for a few horses, a garden, ideally even a man she can call her own. She dreams of the day when she'll escape from lying city-slickers and get a place of her own in a part of the country where a man's word is still his bond and where honesty is simply taken for granted. When handsome cowboy Kevin Sullivan comes into her life, she thinks she has it all. If only she can encourage him to be a bit more ambitious, to share her goal of a place of his own rather than merely a job as a ranch hand working for someone else.

Author Robyn Anders (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Anders) creates a vivid picture of rural Texas and a pair of characters whose life goals head in opposite directions, yet who cannot imagine a life without one another. I found myself waiting for the inevitable moment when Kevin's lies would be exposed and anxious to see if Kevin and Mickey could find a way to overcome what seemed like impossible obstacles standing in the way of their love.

This is a sweet contemporary romance. Approximately 50,000 words.

Four Stars

Reviewed 7/25/04

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